Monday, April 10, 2006

Miracles II

When I was growing up, my family was more or less C&E people. That is, we went to church on Christmas and Easter, maybe....and occasionally on the odd Sunday. Then, my mom found out the pastor was having an affair with one of the congregation, and that was it. She turned away from the church. I don't think she turned away from God, though, ever. Just people-run religion. I remember she put me in this vacation bible class when I was in elementary school one summer. I absolutely loved it, for some reason, but I wasn't much of a bible reader. But I loved sitting outside on the green grass at a park and listening to the teacher talk about God. Jesus was sort of an elusive character; he was a nice fellow with long brown hair, a white man, of course (!), and had a nice beard and nice white robes.

When I got older, I got disgusted with everything religious, particularly organized religion. Everyone who went to church seemed so pious, and save for the nativity scene at Christmas time in our home, Jesus was even further from my reality. I ran the gamut from agnosticism, atheism, paganism, you name it....I investigated it. I kept weighing whether it was necessary to be part of an organized body of people locked up in a building in order to believe in something.

Then one night I had a dream that I still see today, some 30+ years later. You know how you have nice dreams and you remember them for a while, but they eventually go away? You had some nice dreams a couple weeks ago, but now you probably can't remember them. Well, this one stuck.

I dreamt that I was walking along this beautifully lit staircase...not gold, not silver, just beautiful light. When I got to the place that I suppose I was to be, there in front of me was an incredible room. High ceiling, very spacious. All mosaics...completely covering the walls. Not "glowy" not anything obnoxious in splendor. Just very lovely. In the middle of this room was a man, sitting on a very plain structure. No throne, nothing fancy. He was nice looking, had shorter than shoulder length curly-ish hair and a nicely trimmed beard. His eyes were a lovely hazel brown. His skin was a lovely olive tone. I was, of course, compelled to walk to him. He had the most amazingly kind look on his face, and I could feel only...love...emanating from him. I will never forget. This was completely out of my realm of understanding.

He looked at me with such kindness, and simply said, "It's not HOW you believe, only THAT you believe."That was it. When I woke up, I was just transformed. It would take many years to figure out the magnitude of those simple words. But from then on, I believed in the man and son of God, Jesus. That was indeed, Him. If I had a simple dream of Jesus, He should have looked like the Jesus I was exposed to in all the books, all the pictures. I was not prepared or taught to see a man that looked middle-Eastern.When I went to college, I met a fellow that I fell for so hard that I figured we would be married one day. He was a Lutheran, and when we finally got to talking about spiritual matters, I told him about my 'dream.'He actually got angry and told me that God doesn't talk to people like that, especially people like ME....that He reserves His words for 'special' people. I knew instinctively that God is bigger than any of us can comprehend...and He talks to ME...and He talks to YOU....because we are all 'special' people.Mind you, I had fallen completely in love with this guy. But when I heard his words to me about this 'dream'.....I dumped him.It was that significant. It still is.

10 comments:

Your dream made me cry Karen . How beautiful he is. Oh how much he must love you to come and show you himself that way! What a beautiful revelation. I love also the stairway of light. I have had some encounters like that and one time he spoke to me and I heard his voice and felt it at the same time. The only way I can desribe it is that it felt like a rush of crystal clear water running through my body like a river. It was just before I went on a backslide (though I no longer use that word or like it)that lasted many dark years. The words he spoke were these: "My son, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you, wherever you go, whatever you do I will never leave you." Those words literally kept me from killing myself in the years that followed. He is sooooo wonderful... :)

Hey karen, why dont you paint your dream?!

PS: Sorry I dont get here much. I am like that..... :( I come and I go....like the Scarlett Pimpernel

I felt like I could have been reading part of my own history here: "When I got older, I got disgusted with everything religious, particularly organized religion. Everyone who went to church seemed so pious, and save for the nativity scene at Christmas time in our home, Jesus was even further from my reality. "

It's amazing dreams... the ones I remember are the ones I've had about Jesus. I have had a few, but they are the only dreams I recall other than a few really bad dreams here and there.

SEE? I knew you all could relate and have your own stories to tell! Simon, your description gave me goose bumps! "A rush of crystal clear water..." Yes.He loves all of us! He just has to hit me over the head more than most of you. I've been visualizing painting my dream...every time I draw Him, it never comes out right. I know that I'm supposed to glorify Him thru art, tho.Chad! Spill! :-)

Well one dream I had I was standing on a hillside with Jesus. I was confused as to why I was there. There were lines of people stretching down in double lines to the bottom of the hill and off to either side of the hill as far as the eye could see. We were giving them communion together. I can't remember much more than that.

One of the other dreams I had I was searching all over for him and finally came upon him, he was wearing a dark coloured cassock and I said, "Yeshua, I've been looking all over for you, and Finally I've found you!"

He smiled and pulled up his Cassock at the ankle enough to show me he was wearing a pair of Nike tennis shoes. "Yes! And look at my cool new trainers!" he said.

No joke. that was the dream. My pastor at the time said that perhaps Christ was challenging me to keep up with him now that I finally found him. :)

The third one I remember I was talking to Christ about his parables and he took a needle and took a tiny little camel and stuck it through the needle, and said "See it's not so hard."

That dream I just didn't quite get. :) heh. My pastor said that maybe Jesus just has a cool sense of humor.

Chad, those are incredible dreams! The slogan for Nike is "just do it" What a great Word! And, yeah, God has an incredible sense of humor! The second dream you had is awesome! It's like He was showing you how easy and simple EVERYTHING is! For Him, and for us through Him....Don't worry with the word verification...it's not just you. I flunk 50% of the time in getting it right!

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The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!"And let those who hear say, "Come!"Let those who are thirsty come; and let ALL who wish take the FREE GIFT of the water of life.Rev. 22:17

“. . . always remembering that we bow to no authority as final but the Word of God, as illuminated by the Spirit. We will endeavor to interpret the Bible by what the Bible says, not by what men say that it says.” ---Katharine Bushnell